Not So Happily Ever After
by HockeeChica
Summary: It used to be her characters that were always in the presence of death, But now she's the victim in a murder mystery book of her own. All she had wanted was a happily ever after like lots of fairy tales did, but it ended in disaster.
1. Chapter 1

_**Person Profile**_

_**Name**_: Arianna Rose Scarinzi

_**Age**_: 27

_**Gender**_: Female

_**Physical Description**_: Pretty, slender, chocolate brown hair, hazel eyes, olive skinned, 5 foot 5 with an athletic build

_**Emotional Description**_: Kind, respectful, sneaky, social, people person, sometimes un-loyal, trustworthy (most of the time)

_**Address**_: 1620 Orchard Dr. inside a condo in Beverly Hills, California where she lives with her husband

_**Occupation**_: Award winning author of murder mysteries and fairy tales

_**Marital Status**_: Was married to her husband named James Ryder, but started seeing Justin Mallet as well.

_**Family Background**_: Came from a rich Italian family from Balzano, Italy. She was very close to her mother and father. Had a little brother named Nico.

_**Interests/ Hobbies**_: Cooking, charity work, volunteering, running, writing, reading fairy tales and love stories

_**Friends**_: Tons of friends, but was only close to three: Jessica Morgan, Alicia DeLuna, and Maggie Lowe.

_**Possible Destination**_: Starbuck's and a book signing at the local Barnes and Noble

_**Possible Suspect(s)**_: Husband- James Ryder, Rumored boyfriend- Justin Mallet

_**Murder Evidence**_:

Claritin allergy relief

Anti- aging cream

Headache relief stick

Diary Keys

A silver pen

A bracelet

Chanel make-up

Restaurant coupon for La Cucina


	2. Chapter 2

**By: Katie, Destiny and Stephanie.**

**This was for a school project and we liked our story so much we wanted to put it up here. It isn't really a fairytale but I think it's a very god story! Enjoy and leave a comment please **** Review, review, review!**

"_Dead," and officer glumly stated. She was found in the storage closet in the back of the bookstore. She was lying across the floor, sleeping silently, lifeless. Her face was no longer tan and filled with a happy glow, but a corpse's paleface. No longer would she fill a room with a kind and compassionate smile, just still._

"Her name was Arianna Scarinzi," said a local news reporter, "and she is a young adult everyone aspires to be like." Arianna was going home after another book signing, listening to the reporter talk about her. She loved writing books but was exhilarated and urged to do better things with her stories. She was always stresses these days, and nothing could calm her, especially not her husband.

She had arrived in the lobby of the polished condo, and was greeting all with a smile. One of the clerks had told her James had come down looking for her, which made her not want to go upstairs. She loved her husband, but sometimes he didn't give her enough freedom and got somewhat angry. She decided to take the elevator and press all the buttons; it would take longer to get upstairs. Maybe he would calm down by the time she got to their room.

At first when she got into the elevator, it was just the corny music and the sound of her even breathing. It was starting to get boring just standing all by her lonesome, and wanted to just get it over with and see her husband. But then the door dinged and footsteps moved in. Arianna's heart jumped a little bit.

It was a gorgeous man, about 29 that was now standing beside her. He caught her staring and then gave a little smile. Her cheeks turned rosy pink and she stared down at her shoes.

"Hi, I'm Justin Mallet. I'm new to the building; just registered to the eleventh floor," he stated. They talked for several floors more, but then reached the eleventh floor. Arianna was devastated that he had to leave so soon.

"Well," as he stepped out of the elevator and with a toothy grin he turned around, "Goodbye." Arianna blushed again and retorted with a smile of her own, "Hope to see you soon," as the elevator doors shut. She really meant that too, she wanted to see him as soon as possible.

_The husband had been sitting next to Arianna's body, sobbing intensely and leaning over the corpse. The police were interrogating the people around the crime scene. James had asked for a few minutes alone with her, before they took her to be examined._

As Arianna opened the door to their room, James slammed it shut behind her, lashed out, and pulled her deeper into their room. He shouted harshly at her, and tried hitting her but missed. All she could do was tremble in a corner of the room, and make him miss her. He had anger issues but was usually able to control them.

He had finished with his temper tantrum and had gone off to their room. Arianna had decided to sleep on the couch that night, instead of having to deal with James. She had crawled onto the sofa, and curled up with her blanket trying to forget what had just happened.

The next morning when Arianna had woken up; James had already left for work. She went into their room, got changed for the day and started to make herself breakfast. Throughout all these daily activities, she couldn't keep her mind off of Justin, from the elevator. So, she walked to the eleventh floor and knocked on room 327. A young man answered the door and smiled.

Arianna grinned at him as he held the door aside for her to step inside. "I've been waiting for you to stop by. I didn't think it would take this long, though," he told her.

_The police had already questioned all the other people in and around the bookstore with no evidence leading to the murderer. They had detectives taking fingerprints from the crime scene and identifying the existing evidence. The police waited patiently for James to be done weeping over the body. They could only be patient for a few moments longer though._

_ "Sir," the main officer said sternly but politely, "We know this must be hard on you but we have a few questions."_

It had been two weeks since Arianna had met Justin, and already she felt something stronger with him than what she had with James. He made her feel special at times when James would have only made her feel worse and below average. Justin put the glow back into her eyes, which she used to only get when she was writing books. He was everything she ever wanted or needed in the world.

Even though she was happy, she couldn't help but feel guilty at the fact that she wads somewhat cheating on James and spending way more time with Justin than him. She loved James but Justin had been something more. In the end, she decided to follow her heart and continue seeing Justin. After all, she had seen Justin everyday these past few weeks and James hadn't noticed a thing. Maybe he wouldn't notice her out at night and this would be the end of this annoying "phase".

It was noon and she was freshening up for a meeting with Justin, when the front door slammed open and an angry and sweaty James walked in. He was so caught up in what had one wrong at his workplace or whatever he was bother about, that he almost didn't notice Arianna was about to leave. She stood up, tucked in her chair and moved away from her dresser towards James.

"Hon, what's…" she had tried to ask, but James quickly interrupted her thoughts.

"You're going out again? You're never at home spending time with me anymore. First it was writing your novels, then it was the book tour, and now it's new friends? He questioned with a tone that was not very friendly.

"I…It's just… I am meeting Jessica for lunch then going shopping tomorrow since it is the end of my tour," she nervously replied. She wasn't very good at lying but at least James wasn't yelling at her; maybe it was believable. He gave her a stern look but she quickly turned towards the door, "I…I'm sorry. I'll be back later." With that, she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. She quickly headed towards the elevator and pressed the button for the eleventh floor.

Justin was waiting on the other side of the elevator doors when Arianna reached floor eleven and greeted her with a kiss that made butterflies appear in her stomach. They both stood hand-in-hand in the back of the elevator and got out on the ground floor. They walked towards Justin's car and started to pull out of the parking lot. Neither of them noticed the man's silhouette in the window on the 16th floor: Arianna's room.

_Arianna's corpse was now surrounded by a white bed sheet and was gently being lifted into and open vehicle in the back parking lot. At the back of the bookstore, and interrogation room had been set up: four white walls, a desk, a chair and a lamp. A detective was standing on one side of the desk with a notepad and a pen, waiting for James to enter._

_ "Good afternoon James. I'm Detective Barnes and I have a few questions for you. First I would like to say that I am truly sorry for your loss. Secondly, I need you to help me try and figure out why this happened to your wife and who did this to her." Then the detective stopped talking and looked down at his papers._

It was the morning of the book tour appearance at the local Barnes and Noble and she was still full of bliss from being with Justin the night before. They had gone out for diner at an Applebee's then went to the mall to find an outfit for the next night. She had been sad that the night was coming to an end; but she was still prepared to go to diner with her husband the next might. Although she didn't know if their plans would still continue. After all, he had been acting weird since she had left yesterday afternoon with Justin. She didn't know that he had seen her leave yesterday with Justin.

She looked up from her make-up palette to see James walk into the room. She had started to smile at him but he only replied with a nasty glare and frown. He took something from his dressed and abruptly left a few seconds after he came in. She thought she still had bed head or morning breath or something since he exited the room so quickly.

She decided that it would pass eventually and continued on with her daily routines. She heard the faint echo of the front door being closed; James had left for the day. She looked towards her bed and saw that her dairy was still on the bed. She kept everything in that diary. She was about to put it away when the door bell rang. She threw her dairy back onto the bed and exited her room. On the other side of her door was her smiling best friend Alicia DeLuna.

They had locked up the condo and were heading towards the ground floor, when Arianna saw a crumpled paper in the corner. She bent down to pick it up and saw herself and her husband a year ago. She thought back to when it was just the two of them, no Justin. They had been happy then, but now she was starting to feel really bed about what's been going on with her and Justin. She decided she would quit seeing Justin for her marriage's sake. She looked more closely at the picture and notices that a drawn figure, which looked like a pen, was lodged through her throat with blood dripping from it. She instantly felt chills going through her, but thought nothing of it.

Arianna and Alicia were half an hour early after they had gone shopping, so they decided to go to a nearby Starbuck's before Arianna had to go to the book signing. They had ordered their coffees and sat down to relax for a few more minutes. They got caught up before Arianna stood up to leave.

The two friends said good-bye and agreed to get together next week with the rest of their friends; maybe shopping or a movie. Arianna had to walk about two blocks to get to the book signing and was glad she had decided to wear comfortable shoes today.

_The detective had asked James the few basic questions everyone knew would be coming: name, age, relation to the victim, if any at all. Then, the detective came out with one question no one would have expected:_

_ "Did you kill your wife?"_

_ Beads of sweat rolled down James' forehead as he didn't know what to say. They were now hooking up a lie detector system to his body, and he was trembling immensely with fear._

The manager of the bookstore had told her to come through the back door, so she wouldn't have to deal with the chaos of her fans. It had been a long and lonely walk to the bookstore but she was happy to finally be there. She could feel the excitement from outside the building and was eager to begin her book signing.

There was no one left in the back of the store, as they were out front organizing the massive population of people outside. She had tried to get something from the inside of her coat pocket, but dropped her purse instead. She had bent down to retrieve it, but she was violently pulled up in a head lock, an arm straining her airways. She felt a smooth object being pushed through her throat, and with that she took her last breath of air.

She dropped to the ground harshly and felt her body crack. She opened her eyes painfully and saw her husband looking down on her, a glare still in his eye, and a grimace on his face. She felt a twinge of sadness and she had thought she could trust her husband. Maybe that was how he had felt towards her, but she had let him down by cheating on him with Justin. Arianna's eyes shut for the last time.

_"Yes, I killed her," he glumly stated. The lie detector had stayed straight, meaning James was telling the truth. The detective nodded slowly and wrote all his information onto his notepad. Detective Barnes took out his walkie-talkie and called the police in to take James away. He passes the place where he had last seen his wife alive and quickly looked forwards again._

_ "The woman who had everything in her hands, was everything people aspired to be, whom Justin loved so much is now nothing. She had wished for a happy ending, like princesses in the fairy tales she had loved, but ended up with a not so happily ever after ending."_


End file.
